I have some emergent and early readers in my house this year, so I put together this calendar for them to follow along with the season and know when we are doing what.
December 1 - Cookie making
This is not actually done only on December 1st. Our parish Altar and Rosary has their Sugar Plum Days fundraiser over the first weekend of December. So while I'm baking up my contribution for Cookies by the Pound, I save some dough in the freezer for our 12 Days of Christmas.
Because this is all about front end work for Christmas rest!
December 2 - First Sunday of Advent, Greenery goes up
We decorate in stages around here, and stage one is get up the greenery! Advent wreath, mantel garlands, door wreaths, etc. We have aimed to get our tree between the 1st and 3rd Sunday of Advent. Who knows when the actual tree will arrive!
December 6 - St. Nicholas Day
I make overnight cinnamon rolls that get stuck in the oven in the morning. The kids wake up to find their stockings filled by St. Nicholas. We follow a pretty simple system for deciding what goes in those stockings and that has worked well for our family. We'll watch the CCC movie The Boy Who Became Santa too.
December 8 - Immaculate Conception
It's a solemnity, so get thee to church! I've done slightly different things for this every year, so we'll see what it ends up being this year.
December 9 - Second Sunday of Advent, Lights go up!
If we have a tree by now, it gets lights. Lights get added to windows, garlands, where ever else we are doing them. This is our first winter in Amelia Hill House, so I have no idea exactly what will need to happen with lights. Adventure year!
December 12 - Our Lady of Guadalupe
I'll be honest and say that most of our observance for Our Lady of Guadalupe mostly involves watching the CCC movie on St. Juan Diego and maybe eating Mexican food. Probably a family rosary. But I'm from Dallas and this feast is still important for me.
December 13 - St. Lucia
This feast got so much more fun for us once we moved to Minnesota! I make St. Lucia Saffron Buns (kneaded and risen in the bread machine, and adapted for overnight by putting in the fridge for the last rise). We sing Santa Lucia, and read Kirsten's Surprise - the American Girl book about a Swedish girl and her family's life as immigrants in Minnesota. This particular book includes their frontier celebration of St. Lucia and my kids adore it.
December 16 - Gaudete Sunday, tree decorations go up
Gaudete is when we finish up the decoration portion of our Advent because....
December 19, 20, 21 - Ember Days
The winter Ember Days are just around the corner! You can read more about what the Ember Days are and how we observe them here.
This is my giant clean, sort, purge, front end of all house tasks. They're days of fasting and penance too as we prepare to welcome our hearts, minds, bodies, and homes for the coming Christ child and all that he might ask of us.
December 23 - Fourth Sunday of Advent
No big celebrations here. Our work is likely done, and all that is left is likely to be Christmas pageant rehearsal and last minute choir needs.
December 25 - It's Christmas and the great Christmastide begins!
Here's a look back at last year's 12 Days of Christmas:
Our basic rules are: no school, no extra cleaning work, be open for hospitality, enjoy Christmas, and explore. We wrap up 12 Christmas books during Advent preparations, and the kids unwrap one each day. Holiday movie times, cookie baking (and eating), and good warm slow food are all big parts of this time.
We have some special days in there too!
December 27 - St. John's Day
This is our John's name day. I confused the traditions for his feast day with those of St. John the Baptist for a few years, and we did a bonfire on this day. But we don't have a good space for a fire in our new home, so it made sense to shift our celebrations. This year I think it would be fun to do a lot of reading (as he is a patron of printers and publishers) and make mulled wine in memory of St. John's legendary survival of an attempt on his life via poisoned wine.
December 30 - Feast of the Holy Family
In addition to considering this the feast day for my own vocation to family life, it is the patron feast day of our parish. No big plans, just enjoying our little family and our parish family.
December 31 - New Years Eve
We might actually get some use out of our punch bowl and make some Sylvester's punch! Pope Saint Sylvester has his feast day on this last day of the year, and many traditions have been baptized "Sylvester's". The kids have been wanting to make crackers since they saw them made in Christmas on the Victorian Farm. Maybe we'll make them, but I also see a high likelihood of just buying them.
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If you would like to download a copy of the calendar for your home, you can do so here for free!
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What are the big Advent hallmarks in your home? What do your December plans look like?
We don't have a lot of traditions yet. This is our 5th Christmas together, and our oldest is 4 in January. Christmas in NYC is great! The first Christmas here I was very very pregnant and we didn't have our bearings yet. Second Christmas we listened to carols at the gorgeous Morgan library on 2 different nights (I wanted to go again, the first time was so great.)
ReplyDeleteOur parish caroled on the sidewalk so I listened to that too. 3rd Christmas I had a baby days before the Morgan carols so we didn't go. Last year the almost 3 yo was not up to that sort of thing.
The past two years we saw lights in the Dyker Heights neighborhood. It's huge, huge and a long standing tradition there. We will probably go this year too.
I have a 2.5 month old, almost 2, and almost 4 so whatever we do has to allow for noise and wiggles . Right now we are planning to ride a "nostalgia train". In regular subway stations, a vintage, period--inside-and-out train has some planned stops on each Sunday from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
I also researched quality Christian Christmas picture books and made a list, so we will do those too. Our tiny artificial tree will go up a few days before Christmas and stay up until Candlemas. The kids might make ornaments. I have some ideas and have craft supplies coming to keep us busy this winter.
My daughter's birthday is December 12 so I made over-the-top everything you can think of nachos last year. I will again this year.
I bake tons and will put chocolate coins in the kids' shoes for St. Nicholas Day. I did that last year. Aldi is a great place to get the coins. They stock them at Christmas time. ---MariaE
I still haven't tried Aldi! I'm told they are amazing for holiday party stocking.
DeleteCaroling would be so fun! When I was a kid we did carriage rides a few years to look at lights. That was back in Texas - I can't image doing that at night in Minnesota! Maybe a slow drive, with hot chocolate, would be doable though.
I love Aldi. It's not for everyone, but if you cook a lot with staples (not freezer meals, very particular mixes, etc) it's cheap and quality. They've gotten quite posh over the last few years. Gluten free, organic, "health foods." A big plus is since there is only four aisles, once you know your way about, you can shop at lightening speed. --MariaE
DeleteI love hearing about your Advent and Christmas plans! Our biggest tradition is flexibility, since our life circumstances have been different pretty much every year that we've been married as we've moved across states, gotten pregnant, had a baby, had another baby, that kind of thing. And I like trying out different stuff-a couple years, we participated in an evening of Las Posadas, we started doing a Jesse Tree a couple years ago, and one year we went to Handel's Messiah (one of my best friends was in the choir for it). Last year, we hosted an Advent tea on the third Sunday of Advent, and this year I'm hoping/planning to host an Advent tea again but on the first Sunday of Advent-as a nice way to get into the spirit of Advent and celebrate the new liturgical year :)
ReplyDeleteYour plans for Christmas sound delightful! Last year, on the feast of St. John, my sister and I took our Christmas presents (gift certificates to a wonderful local bookstore) and went book-shopping to celebrate. I thought it was very appropriate.
The changes in tradition are part of why I think this year can be so fun! There is so much rich tradition to draw from in the Catholic world. We've spent Christmas in a different place each of the last three years. Those moves, plus additional and growing family members, mean ample opportunity for flexibility! Being open to change seems key for having an enjoyable season, instead of a stressful one.
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